Naturopathy is a natural way of regulating our bodies and it involves no side-effects-inducing drugs or other invasive therapies. It involves a holistic approach to maintaining our health. In case of any ailments, the naturopath approaches the problem with the goal of helping the body heal itself.
The old adage ‘You are what you eat’ is the basic tenet of Naturopathy treatments. In case of diabetes the naturopath adopts the three pronged approach, diet control, and weight control and stress relief.
Diabetes Prevention
As the old saying goes, ‘prevention in better than cure’ and it is never more so than in the case of diabetes. It is caused by the energy from the food that we eat and converted into sugar is not properly assimilated by our bodies and so enters the blood stream.
The other organs that need the energy to function properly suffer while the blood which is ill – equipped to carry the extra glucose is also affected which in turn affects other vital organs like the kidneys and the eyes. So the best way to handle diabetes is to prevent it from occurring, especially if you have a family history of the disease. It is very important to get screened at least annually if there is a tendency in the family tree towards diabetes.
The only sure-fire way to control the disease is to control the diet and strictly follow the doctor’s recommendations. Generally complex carbohydrates and fibre-rich diets are supposed to be good for diabetics to follow. Foods that are hard to digest and get assimilated slowly are recommended for diabetics, like green leafy vegetables, legumes and whole grains.
Also paradoxically even foods that do not appear to be sweet can get converted into sugar during the digestion and so should be avoided. One such example is junk foods, especially fried packaged snacks which contain deadly transfats.
What you eat and how you eat become very essential to control diabetes because instead of two or three large meals smaller meals of more frequency will help to control sudden hikes in blood sugar levels; and also certain food groups can be paired together to slow down digestion and assimilation. Some Naturopaths also employ medicinal herbs to help in the body’s healing process. In case of diabetics such recommended herbs would be fenugreek or methi, bitter gourd, olives, and garlic.
Other Factors
Obesity is a major cause for diabetes even without a family history of the same. So weight control plays a major role in the management of the disease if you are obese. Stress and insufficient sleep are also two major contributing factors to diabetes. Such complications inherent to the modern urban way of life are the reason why diabetes is called a lifestyle disease or rich man’s disease. Relaxation therapies and massages are used to help the patients relax and get good sleep.
Diabetes Treatment
The Naturopath employs a three pronged approach to treat diabetes too; the controlling of the diet, the supplementary proteins and vitamins that you will miss from you normal diet, and finally herbal remedies based on special foods that reduce the insulin content. Naturopathy believes that diabetes can be controlled with regular exercise and certain yogasanas that help to regulate the digestive system and dhauti.
Some Naturopaths swear by the efficiency of regular Surya Namaskaras that help the overall body in controlling the onset of diabetes. Diabetes is particularly troublesome because it will affect the proper function of various other organs if left unchecked, particularly the eyes and the kidneys.
Naturopathy relies on controlling our bodies by what we eat and so in case of diabetics, it recommends strict adherence to a basic diet consisting of anti-oxidants, dietary fibre, potassium rich natural vegetables and foods. Another fundamental concept in Naturopathy is the removal of toxins from your system and for this the Naturopath will prescribe detoxification procedures.
Hydrotherapy and mud therapy are also regularly employed techniques to clean your systems off the various toxins and promote better health. Hydro therapy has heat reducing advantage and helps the diabetic relax and so sleep properly. Mud therapy, in the abdominal area, cools down the body which induces blood to rush to the cooler areas to warm them up; this in turn helps the digestive system as the contaminated blood is moved to other parts of the body.
